Inside the Beltway: Christie’s appetite for the White House

Wooing the older and wiser? Perhaps the Republican Party can take that off its to-do list.

“Seniors — those aged 65 and older — have moved from a reliably Democratic group to a reliably Republican one over the past two decades. From 1992 through 2006, seniors had been solidly Democratic and significantly more Democratic than younger Americans. Over the last seven years, seniors have become less Democratic, and have shown an outright preference for the Republican Party since 2010,” reports Gallup analyst Jeffrey Jones, who based his conclusions on a huge tracking sample of respondents, numbering about 18,000 for each year in the study, or about 250,000 people.

And the numbers: In 1992, 53 percent of senior citizens identified as Democrats or leaned that way, 39 percent identified as Republicans or leaned Republican. The Dems were ahead by 14 percentage points, But the older and wiser among us have shifted their interest.

Americans are chafing over the newly-extended Obamacare sign-up deadline, which more or less coincides with IRS tax deadlines. The Department of Health and Human Services predicts a sudden “surge” of interest, even as lawmakers argue over who is to blame for the confusion.

“The implementation of Obamacare is decided more by the whims of the White House political office than by the words written in the law. Creating chaos and uncertainty does not help families or individuals who have seen their plans canceled, who have lost access to their doctors and pediatricians, and who have seen their costs skyrocket,” says House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.

But there’s always information to be had. FreedomWorks is offering a free booklet called “The Obamacare Autopsy,” focusing on “harsh realities” of healthcare reform.

“Democrats have made a lot of promises to the American people, but the results are in,” declares Patrick Hedger, the organization’s policy analyst who lists the now familiar Obamacare woes: Billions of dollars added to the deficit, premiums raised by an average 41 percent, dropped plans, lost jobs and work hours.

“Democrats rammed this law through Congress, then hid from its realities behind a 2014 implementation date,” Mr. Hedger observes. “Now that the law has proved to be disastrous, they’re hiding again behind Internet memes and insulting overtures to young Americans like ‘Brosurance’ and pajama boy. FreedomWorks plans to fight through the noise by arming activists with the facts.”

Find the booklet to read or download Here: Freedomworks.org/broken-promises.

SCIENCE CORNER

There have been warnings from scientists in past years that meat from the high-temperature barbecue can accumulate something called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Bad. Not good. The “PAHs” are associated with a cancer risk. But here’s some happy news. A group of Portuguese researchers have determined that marinating that delectable meat in beer before it goes to the grill stems the effect of potential carcinogens in cooked meat

Ah, but some beers work better than others. The researchers grilled samples of pork marinated for four hours in Pilsner beer, non-alcoholic Pilsner or a “black beer” ale, to well-done on a charcoal grill. The Black beer had the strongest effect, reducing the levels of eight major PAHs by more than half compared with unmarinated pork.